House Hunting...

I always dreamed of this point in my life. Searching for that perfect house, with the white picket fence, a view of the ocean, and a kitchen that would make Emeril jealous.
Evan and I have started house hunting. And I must say, it is a grueling process. There is not much on the market (that we can afford) in Dunellen or Middlesex, so we have expanded our search in other towns like Manville and Bound Brook. Since we unfortunately have a rather low budget at the moment, it is slim pickins all around. We have to either settle for what we like to call a "tiny house" or move in to a real "fixer-upper." Once you start saying things like, "Oh you can just knock this wall down, and make this a bigger room. Take out this section here. Move out this section here." (you get the idea), I immediately do not want to move in.
We saw a house that we LOVED in Manville, and we immediately put in an offer. The listing did say "Accepting All Offers" so, why not? I was excited to hear back. I had a good feeling about this house. I thought perhaps this could be the one. Evan told me that he prayed that if this wasn't the one, for God to show us. Sure enough, the next day our realtor said that the owners would not even consider the offer we had made (which was not unreasonable for what it was listed at). So that was that. It was a no.
We looked at another house around the corner that was similar in setup and size, just not as "new" let's say. Still nice though. We put an offer in on that one, and now we are hoping for the best. All we can do is pray. You would think it would be easy to get a house these days with the way the market is.
Hopefully we will have a place of our own before Christmas.